AAMC Mailing Lists

The Group on Institutional Advancement (GIA) is one of 23 professional development groups and councils within the AAMC. Its membership is composed of more than 700 alumni relations, communications, development, marketing, and public affairs/community relations professionals at AAMC-member institutions.

Goal

The AAMC Group on Institutional Advancement (GIA) fosters the professional growth of its members in their endeavors to advance the missions of their institutions. GIA resources and peer-to-peer connections enable members to increase awareness, understanding, and support among the public, the media, alumni, policymakers, and donors for medical education, health care, and biomedical research.

History

The group now known as the GIA began meeting informally in the 1950s when the AAMC governance asked the few existing medical school public relations people to staff the press room at the AAMC Annual Meeting. In the following years, the group elected its first chair (1962), began holding regular meetings in conjunction with the AAMC Annual Meeting (1950), wrote bylaws (1968), and was formally organized as the Section on Public Relations (1968). In 1972, the AAMC Executive Council recognized them as the Group on Public Affairs. In the late 1970s, the group expanded its mission and membership to incorporate medical center alumni and fund-raising professionals, and in 1981, the name was changed to the Group on Public Affairs to recognize the new diversity of the membership. In the early 1990s, programming increasingly focused on helping members collaborate for the advancement of their institutions. In 1993, reflecting the common goals that join its diverse membership, the group changed its name to the Group on Institutional Advancement.

Membership

GIA members must be appointed by the medical school dean or teaching hospital CEO of an AAMC-member institution. Deans and CEOs may appoint as many institutional advancement representatives as they choose. To become a member of GIA, ask your medical school dean or teaching hospital CEO to send a brief letter of appointment (that includes your name, title, institution, address, phone number, and e-mail address) to Hollie Sleeseman at hsleeseman@aamc.org. As a GIA member you will:

Stay informed about the GIA, the AAMC, and the world of academic medicine through breaking news notices, conference announcements, newsletters, job postings, and data resources.

Develop your skills and knowledge base through professional development and leadership development programs tailored to your profession.

Network with peers and tap into their support and expertise at conferences and webinars, and through industry surveys, member-only online professional networks, discipline-specific listserve communities, and a membership directory.

Get noticed and rewarded for your work through the annual national awards program.

Annual membership fees are $130 per person. In addition to the valuable services listed here, member fees allow the GIA to obtain high-quality speakers for the annual meeting and the national professional development conference, and support the Awards for Excellence competition.

Disciplines

Alumni

The purpose of alumni relations as an institutional advancement discipline is to encourage and foster alumni involvement in the life of their alma mater as ambassadors, advocates, advisers, benefactors, and educational partners. The role of alumni relations professionals is to inform and involve alumni, while also championing the role of alumni relations as a professional discipline in partnership with and in service to our academic medicine institutions and our alumni associations.

Communications

The communications discipline is devoted to the practice of delivering key messages to target audiences through a variety of tactics on behalf of universities, medical schools, health systems, hospitals, faculty members, patients, or other groups. The discipline includes the subspecialty areas of corporate communications, crisis communications, employee/internal communications, media relations, social media, and strategic communications.

Development

The development discipline is rooted in the practice of establishing relationships with individuals, corporations, foundations, and other giving entities for the purpose of soliciting philanthropic support for an institution's strategic needs. Development practitioners focus on identifying a potential donor's areas of interest and advancing the relationships through a series of strategic contacts, using a variety of methods. The goal of development is to create a long-term bond between a donor and the institution that will result in repeated and/or increased philanthropic giving over time.

Marketing

Marketing has grown as a key strategic profession in the development of the brand and business of academic medicine. Marketing professionals are involved with, but not limited to, marketing planning through key market and customer research, marketing execution through advertising, marketing communications, digital and web strategies, new media such as social media, and marketing analytics competition. Marketing is a key strategic function in the advancement of the academic institution amidst increased market forces.

Public Affairs/Community Relations

The purpose of the public affairs/community relations discipline is to develop and expand relationships with external partners, the community, and public policy decision-makers on behalf of the institution, with the goal of showing the value of the institution to the community, state, and nation. By working closely with other disciplines, such as marketing, communications, and development, these professionals assist with message development and outreach to build awareness within the community and enhance an institution’s ability to influence key stakeholder audiences and the public policy process. These professionals also identify and promote opportunities for community engagement and pipeline development.

Meetings

The GIA holds two meetings a year-the national meeting, in conjunction with Learn, Serve, Lead: The AAMC Annual Meeting that is held in the fall, and the National Professional Development Conference, held in the spring. Both meetings provide the latest information on broad institutional advancement issues as well as skills-building workshops in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing, and public affairs.

Officers

The GIA officers shall include a chair, chair-elect, vice chair for communications/marketing/public affairs, and a vice chair for alumni/development.